Live Nation World: Shakira who has a strong international draw has signed to Live Nation. The deal is supposably worth 70 to 100 million and she owes Epic 3 more albums. Nickelback is close to signing with Live Nation as well according to Fox.

Piracy Crackdown: 26-year-old Daniel Dove faces 10 years in prison and will be sentenced on September 9, 2008 for copyright infringement. Daniel and his posse uploaded copyrighted material including games, movies, and music to EliteTorrents (internet piracy site).

TRL: Unsigned band, Settings, will appear on MTV’s TRL TODAY at 3:30 Eastern.

The European Union is attempting to rewrite the rules on royalty collection. The new plan gives royalty collection societies 90 days to terminate their monopolies. Currently, each country has it’s own collection society, which handles all of the licensing, royalty tracking and payout. They have flat per minute airtime fees that apply to every artist and songwriter, no matter what label they belong to. The European Union is looking to end this system, stating the current set up lacks efficiency. Artists, represented by the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA), fear the new competition will allow a few major corporations to rise to the top, driving down fees for the authors. Artists are threatening to pull their music off radio stations.